Paul Thomas

I am a Professor at UNSW Art and Design and currently the Director of the Studio for Transdisciplinary Art Research (STAR) as well as the co-chair of the Transdisciplinary Imaging Conference series 2010-2018. In 2000 I instigated and was the founding Director of the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth 2002, 2004 and 2007. As an artist I am a pioneer of transdisciplinary art practice. My practice led research takes not only inspiration from nanoscience and quantum theory, but actually operates there. My current publication Quantum Art and Uncertainty (October 2018) is based on the concept that at the core of both art and science we find the twin forces of probability and uncertainty.
My internationally exhibited research projects have been based on working with scientist and asking specific questions. The ‘Quantum Consciousness’ work was based on experiments done in collaboration with Professor Andrea Morello, Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, UNSW. The artwork was based from data of me reading sections of Feynman’s 1982 paper ‘Simulating Physics with Computers’, to an affect the spin of an single electron. The project was presented in the Rise of the bio-Society, Mt Gambia; 2017: Collision, Collaboration and the Future of Artsci, Taiwan; 2016: Sound Invasions, Harvestworks, New York; Immersive Sound Works, International Symposium of Electronic Arts, Vancouver and Art in the age of Catastrophe, Actual Contemporary, Winnipeg in 2015. Previous projects exploring nanotechnologies have also been exhibited nationally and Internationally. ‘Multiverse’ 2013 based on Richard Feynman’s diagrams on photons reflecting from a mirror, ‘Nanoessence’ 2009 which explored the space between life and death at a nano level and ‘Midas’ 2007 which researched what is transferred when skin touches gold at a nano level. Other publications Nanoart: The Immateriality of Art,(2013) Relive Media art Histories, co-edited with Sean Cubitt and Interference Strategies and Cloud and Molecular Aesthetics co-edited with Lanfranco Aceti and Edward Colless.